1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for storing image data by executing a collaborative operation with a plurality of image processing apparatuses and to image processing apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent improvement in function and the widespread use of image processing apparatuses have facilitated copying of documents and sending of electronic data. Although these functions are very convenient, copying of documents and sending of electronic data may cause leakage of confidential information.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-293833 discusses a conventional method of coping with such a problem, wherein a server storage function is provided in an image processing apparatus, which temporarily stores input image data in a memory in the apparatus and uploads processed image data to a server to store all the processed image data in the server. Thus, in the event of leakage of confidential information, a user can trace which apparatus processed the information by referring to the data in the server.
Recent image processing apparatuses are also capable of collaborative processing by a plurality of devices. This collaborative processing inputs image data using a first device and processes the image data using a second device. Thus, collaborative processing can be executed by requesting the second device to execute an image processing function that the first device has not.
However, the above-described related-art image storage system has the following problems. In the case where the collaborative processing is performed by the first multifunction device and the second multifunction device, the same image data is stored in both devices. To find the transmission source from output image data, there is no need to store the data from both multifunction devices, which wastes much image storage memory of the server.
The server storage function stores input documents in the server. Therefore, if the appearance of a stored image is significantly changed by the process of 2in1 layout or stamping, it becomes difficult to search for the same image if a problem, such as leakage of information, occurs later. Thus, such image processing after server storage processing has been inhibited.